(15 July 1944 - 19 March 1958) (divorced) (4 children)
M1. Madiba Thembekile Mandela (1946-1969)
M2. Makgatho Mandela (1950-2005)
F3. Makaziwe Mandela (1953)
4. ??Unknown??
Evelyn Mase (18 May 1922 – 30 April 2004) was a South African nurse, who was the first wife of the anti-apartheid activist and future politician Nelson Mandela, to whom she was married from 1944 to 1958. She was the mother of four of his children, including Makgatho Mandela and Makaziwe Mandela.
she met Mandela through family friends Walter and Albertina Sisulu, subsequently marrying him at the Native Commissioner's Court. Living together as a family in Soweto, they raised four children, with Mandela's mother and sisters spending much time with them: sons Madiba "Thembi" Thembekile (1946–1969) and Makgatho Mandela (1950–2005), daughters both named Makaziwe Mandela (the first born in 1947, dying at age nine months, and the second born in 1953).
However, their relationship came under strain as Mandela became increasingly involved in the African National Congress, organising the Defiance Campaign and Congress of the People, and being charged with sedition during the Treason Trial. Eschewing politics, she converted to the Jehovah's Witness religious movement. Accusing him of adultery, they divorced in 1958, and he went on to marry Winnie Mandela that year.
Taking the children, she moved to Cofimvaba and opened a grocery store, but continued to appear in the South African press, becoming a vocal critic of Mandela during the 1990s, when he was freed from prison and became President of South Africa. Although long insisting that her marriage to Mandela was still valid in the eyes of God, in 1998 she married a Sowetan businessman.
Her funeral attracted international attention, being attended by Mandela, Winnie and his third wife, Graca Machel.